1. Safe House- $24M/$78.2M
Believe it or not, Denzel Washington has only had three $100M movies over his storied career. How many does his co-star Ryan Reynolds have? Three, although X-men Origins: Wolverine can hardly be considered a starring role for him. Still, it looks like Safe House will be the next for them both as the film only slipped about 40% and seems to have a firm grasp of this weak time of the season. It's success is probably a good reason why the Ghost Rider sequel turned out to be a flaming lemon.
2. The Vow- $23.6M/$85.5M
Channing Tatum and his pecs kept packin' in theaters full of women and emotionally defeated dudes as The Vow stayed neck and neck with Safe House. This shouldn't be much of a surprise considering the Valentine's Day boost, with nearly half that total earned on the holiday alone. For Tatum, the film has already surpassed the domestic haul of Dear John, and is taking clear aim at it's worldwide total. McAdams, who broke $100M in romance land twice already with The Time Traveler's Wife and The Notebook, may be looking at her highest grossing lead as well. In the end, The Vow is a certifiable hit, undoubtedly bigger than anybody could have predicted. Really, there are only a few actors who can sell a movie like this nowadays, with the others being Ryan Gosling and Amanda Seyfried. Somewhere, a studio exec is furiously scrambling to put a movie together that has all four in some sort of love rectangle.
3. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance- $22M
Well, let's face it, this was always going to be a tough sell. The first Ghost Rider film rode the tidal wave of good comic book buzz after the re-emergence of Batman, but with so many superhero movies out there now the genre is no longer special. There are other factors contributing to this film doing less than half the business of it's predecessor, even with the increased 3D ticket prices. Nicolas Cage? No longer a leading guy. He just isn't, no matter how much we may all chuckle at his wildcard antics, we tend to do it from the comfort of our living room couch. More importantly, though, this sequel felt forced in the way others rarely do. Sony only made the film in order to maintain the rights to the property so that it wouldn't revert back to Marvel(the same with the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot), which also explains the five year wait.
4. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island- $20.1M/$53.2M
Well shut me up. After lambasting Journey 2 last week, it bounces back with the best carryover from last week, slipping only 26%. One look at the foreign haul should tell you that we can probably expect a third installment, with the global haul at over $180M. So while the sequel may not hang around as long as it's predecessor did, it certainly has a good shot at besting it's $240M total.
5. This Means War- $17.6M/$19.2M
The star-studded This Means War didn't blow anybody out of the water in it's debut, but it didn't totally crap out either. If anything, it's a touch more evidence that Chris Pine and Tom Hardy can't quite sell a movie on their own yet, even an action comedy with a heavily pushed love triangle at the center of it. They'll bounce back from this, but Reese Witherspoon hasn't had a legit hit in a long time. In fact, if you compare this to recent disaster How Do You Know, and she appears to be regressing. Romantic comedies are where she pays the bills, but she hasn't had one worth a hill of beans since 2008's Four Christmases. That counts, right?
6. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace- $7.87M/$33.7M
7. Chronicle-$7.5M/$51M
8. The Woman in Black-$6.64M/$45.3M
9. The Secret World of Arrietty- $6.38M
Disney's low cost relationship with Japan's Studio Ghibli continues to reap rewards, as the latest from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki performed better than any of the previous imports, including 2009's Ponyo. That film finished out it's domestic run at $15M, and with Arrietty having arguably the best reviews of the week it's a possibility it will surpass that in a couple of weeks. Overseas, where anime has a much stronger presence, Arrietty has taken in over $120M at this stage.
10. The Grey-$3.03M/$47.9M
